FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY...

On Sunday night at 11 pm I gave myself the HCG injection, thirty six hours later we headed up to Maple Grove to have my eggs retrieved. The nurse took us back and we got prepped for the procedure. I put my stylish hospital gown, robe and oh so lovely blue booties on. They gave me valium right away to get me relaxed. They then took my vitals and a nurse made her way in to get my IV inserted. We can't say enough good things abut all of the nurses at the Midwest Center for Reproductive Health. Truly this place makes you feel like you are apart of a family. One of the nurses was telling us, that they get so invested with each family that the day of pregnancy tests they are just as excited and just as upset with whatever the outcome is. With my crappy veins I was nervous about how well putting my IV in would go but the nurse did a flawless job and I had zero pain. Dr. Corfman came in and went over the procedure it self and soon enough I had two nurses walking me down to the surgical room.

They got me up on the bed and one nurse was there to administer my anesthesia and the other nurse was there to collect the fluid and eggs that comes out of my follicles. Dr. Corfman's goal is to use as little anesthesia as possible, so Im slightly sedated but fully awake. They also wait to administer it at the right time. Dr. Corfman does a water bath to clean off my lady parts inside and out. That was the weirdest feeling ever and then after that it was time to go in with the ultrasound and needle to retrieve the eggs. Basically a needle is passed through the top of the vagina under ultrasound guidance to get to the ovary and follicles. The fluid in the follicles is aspirated through the needle and the eggs detach from the follicle wall and are sucked out of the ovary. The nurse collects the fluid and eggs and then they got passed through a small window that goes directly to the lab. The lab then looks at the eggs and eventually they inject Ryan's sperm directly into my eggs. I was able to watch the procedure on the ultrasound screen next to me and then also on a different screen to see the eggs as the lab is looking at them. The anesthesia made me feel dizzy and sleepy so I pretty much just kept my eyes closed and the anesthesia nurse and Dr. Corfman both walked me through what they were doing. The feeling of the needle going into my follicles was interesting using two to three jabs and it went in. Some mild cramping but overall the pain was minimal and they only had to use the least amount of anesthesia possible. The retrieval itself took five minutes and they were able to retrieve five eggs. Afterwards Dr. Corfman did a trial transfer where he placed the catheter in my uterus to make sure that everything will go smoothly for the actually transfer. I warned the doctors before hand about how I don't do well with anesthesia, I usually get pretty sick coming out of it. They sat me up and gave me some time before they moved me to the chair that would bring me to post op. As I sat there all three of them place their hands on me and we sat in silence for a few minutes. I felt as if they were praying on me, not sure if they were or not but I took that time to just thank God for a smooth procedure and prayed that he would take care for our eggs and future embryos. I cried coming out of the anesthesia which is also very typical of me but I was so thankful for Dr. Corfman and his staff. Everything from start to now almost finish has gone so smoothly and so painless. Completely different then our experience with Mayo Clinic.

They wheeled me back to post op where Ryan was waiting. He actually got to watch the ultrasound as they were retrieving my eggs. They gave me some food to try and eat since I hadn't eaten anything since the night before. I was very nauseas and felt really crappy. Even after two doses of Zolfran my nauseas wouldn't go away. They took my vitals often and at one point my blood pressure was 85/55. My blood pressure is usually pretty low but that made the nurses a little nervous I think. I got to the point where I just wanted to go home and they wheeled my down to the pickup. The car ride home was the worse car ride of my life. Every bump and turn made me want to hurl even more and eventually over the Lafayette Bridge I lost my cookies. As soon as we got home I made it to the bathroom just in time to do it again. Ryan made me some toast which I forced myself to eat and then I tried to rest. I had some mild cramping last night and slept just ok. This morning Im pretty uncomfortable. I have a lot of pressure, some mild cramping and plenty of aches. Ate only some of my breakfast this morning so I'm still feeling off, just happy to not be throwing up. I plan to relax and take it easy the next few days. We will know more today when our embryo transfer will be. Im slightly nervous since we only have five eggs. Each egg will have Ryan's sperm put into them, but it doesn't mean that all will fertilize. But God has a plan. Ryan and I laid in bed last night and talked about how our five babies are growing as we speak. How cool is that!

Ryan took some photos of the procedure. The large dark circles are my follicles and we will be posting a short video on our Instagram account and Facebook where you can actually see the needle going into my follicles and aspirating the fluid and eggs out of them. We will have another blog post tomorrow on what we find out today. So stay tuned. Again thank you of all the love, prayers and support. They mean so much to Ryan and I.